Board charged with saving TLC insists there is no need to worry, but won’t provide details of extent of problems facing historic sites the TLC mortgaged to raise money

House at 1450 West 64th Ave. which was the home of author Joy Kogawa.

Photograph by: Steve Bosch
, Vancouver Sun

The financial woes of The Land Conservancy of B.C. have led to the historic Joy Kogawa House facing foreclosure on July 18.

At an emotional meeting Thursday, TLC board members acknowledged it was unable to afford the upkeep of 51 landmarks, including the BC Binning House, Abkhazi Garden in Victoria, Madrona Farm in Saanich, the Sooke Potholes and Talking Mountain Ranch at Clinton.

The TLC board said none of its other B.C. heritage sites and wild lands are subject to foreclosure though another dozen were mortgaged.

The 15-year-old non-profit society has been unable to meet all of its financial obligations for a year and no longer has paid staff.

Alastair Craighead, the TLC chairman, said the conservancy has $1.2 million in unfunded, short-term liabilities and between $7 and 8-million in long-term debt.

Monthly expenses of $350,000 have been reduced to about $100,000, he said, and the organization is surviving thanks to volunteers along with fees and donations from its roughly 7,000 members.

Concerns about the viability of the conservatory were expressed by critics three years ago and those concerns came to a head last year. But the extent of the problem is only slowly emerging.

The problems raise questions about how the board can continue soliciting donations and about whether it is or should be permitted to transfer, sell or mortgage any property.

Regardless, if assets end up being lost, the consequences would reverberate across the country. Public confidence in such trusts, of which there are dozens in B.C., would suffer a major blow.

“We recognize the public trust in TLC to manage its financial obligation has been shaken and this has ramifications throughout the conservation community,” Craighead said.

He said TLC is working with Vancity Credit Union to “get the best advice about rebuilding trust and restructuring the organization.”

Representatives of the Kogawa House Society said they found out there was a mortgage on house when a foreclosure threat was made in February and said they have struggled since to get their answer questioned.

Craighead said Vancity has people who are supposed to provide such information.

But the credit union said it was only indirectly involved.

“We don’t know about specific mortgages or specific claims,” said Andy Broderick, vice-president of community investment. “TLC needs to respond to those. We have always been clear with TLC that we’re not involved in that.”

He said Vancity was only providing general support to TLC.

Craighead and other board members said they weren’t on the board when decisions were made in the past to fund day-to-day operations and new purchases by taking out mortgages on some TLC properties.

“We’re working to resolve the problems rather than analyze how they happened.”

Board member Mel Lehan acknowledged a lot of people no longer trust the organization.

A former TLC member, Gastown heritage developer Larry Killam, confronted the board at Thursday’s meeting, holding a sheaf of documents as he questioned its conduct.

“Joy Kogawa herself raised the full purchase price for this house before TLC got involved,” he complained.

A riled Craighead said he was going to order him out.

Killam stood his ground as Craighead testily demanded to know where he got the documents.

“They were issued to board members and they were not to supposed to go beyond the board,” Craighead said.

Craighead would not explain how a mortgage was put on the Kogawa House in 2006.

Killam produced what he described as a list drawn up by the conservancy of 13 properties it could “sacrifice” to save itself, a list that includes the Kogawa and Binning houses.

Board member Lehan responded that the list was created in 2011 and was no longer an issue, suggesting that when they started the process, they hoped they could find a $2 million property to sell, but ““we’ve been given legal advice, so that’s not even on the table.”

He would not identify the lawyer who provided the opinion.

“There’s no plan to sacrifice anything. Even if there were a plan at one time, it’s not possible. Our legal advice has told us we can’t sell anything.”

Craighead said it was “much more complicated than that.”

Vancouver lawyer Anders Ourom, who attended the meeting out of personal interest, said that TLC transferred land in Squamish to a developer last year. He alleged that TLC acquired the land in 2005 on the understanding it would protect it.

“The developer is now building the thing that the land was acquired to prevent,” Ourom alleged.

Adele Weder, co-author of a book about Binning, was concerned about the artist’s 1940 Modernist West Vancouver home, recognized by the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada and also donated to the conservancy mortgage-free.

She was taken aback to hear it was on the “sacrifice list.”

Craighead told her not to worry: “We are very optimistic.”

_______

Ann-Marie Metten, executive director of the Joy Kogawa House Society, attended The Land Conservancy meeting Thursday to learn why her historic site faces foreclosure.

But after nearly two hours and a very strange meeting, she remains worried the Salt Spring Island businessman man who holds a mortgage for more than $200,000 would obtain a final order for sale July 18.

She had no idea how the Kogawa House had become encumbered with the debt or why.

When she asked Alastair Craighead, chairman of The Land Conservancy board, he responded by telling her that other debts — Canada Revenue Agency claims for unpaid taxes — were “now paid off.”

“Could you repeat that, please because there is a lien on this property,” said the astounded and skeptical Metten.

“No,” Craighead said. “Not any longer.”

“Could we get a copy of the paperwork?” chimed in Martha Rans, the Kogawa society lawyer, who was sitting beside Metten. “It’s a big concern for us.”

“Slow down, we’ll get there,” Craighead said. “You’ll have to take my word for it. I’m a truthful man and it just happened. We don’t have the paperwork with us.”

Craighead insisted TLC had been talking to Kogawa House about TLC’s financial problems. and the mortgage.

Metten rolled her eyes and groaned.

“We’ve asked three times and you haven’t given us any information,” she cried in frustration. “I’m being brushed off right now.”

Metten said the situation was infuriating given the national fundraising campaign to save the home at 1450 West 64th St.

Senator Nancy Ruth donated the final $530,000 to pay for the bungalow that was the childhood home of the writer of Obasan, a moving account of being interned as a Japanese-Canadian during the Second World War, and other works.

But the Kogawa society, after taking possession of the house in 2006, handed it over mortgage-free to the better-equipped TLC, which promised to ensure it was preserved. The society concentrated on running programming at the house.

Metten said Rans had been trying to get information out of TLC’s board for months after the Kogawa society learned of the mortgage in February.

“Every opportunity to answer my phone calls, to correspond with me, please talk with me, I have not heard from you,” an emotional Metten maintained.

“You should talk with our lawyers,” Craighead replied. “Have they not been in touch with you?”

“Who are they?” she asked.

“We will put them (our lawyers) in touch with you,” Craighead promised.

“Could you give us the name of the legal counsel?” lawyer Rans pressed.

“We will do so,” he said, as if protecting a state secret. “But not right here. We will do so.”

As she stood to leave without a name, Rans pleaded one last time: “It’s time for us to know who is going to be assisting us to ensure on July 18 this property is not in a position that no one in this room, no one in this room wants it to be in.”

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